Bhutan and Gross National Happiness

How the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan made happiness a formal national goal, how its index works, and what the experiment can and cannot teach other countries.

Bhutan, a small kingdom in the Himalayas between India and China, is famous for a bold idea: that a country’s progress should be judged by the happiness and wellbeing of its people, not only by its economic output. This idea is called Gross National Happiness, often shortened to GNH. It is the best-known example of a government placing wellbeing at the centre of national policy.

Where the idea came from

In the 1970s, Bhutan’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, is widely credited with saying that Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product. At first this was a guiding philosophy rather than a measurement system. It drew on Buddhist values and on Bhutan’s wish to modernise without losing its culture or its natural environment.

Over time the idea became more formal. Bhutan’s 2008 constitution directs the state to promote conditions that enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness. The policy is traditionally described as resting on four pillars: fair and sustainable economic development, conservation of the environment, preservation and promotion of culture, and good governance.

How the GNH Index works

In 2008 and again in 2010, researchers at the Centre for Bhutan Studies turned the philosophy into a survey-based measure, the GNH Index. It covers nine areas of life: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards.

The index uses an idea of sufficiency. Rather than asking how much of each thing a person has without limit, it sets a threshold of “enough” for each indicator. A person is counted as happy in the GNH sense when they reach sufficiency in a large share of the indicators. This design reflects a belief that wellbeing comes from having enough across many parts of life, not from maximising any single one.

Sufficiency in practice

Consider the time-use area. Instead of assuming more work hours are always better because they raise income, the index checks whether a person's hours of work fall within a reasonable limit and whether they get enough sleep. Someone earning a high income but working 14 hours a day and sleeping five hours a night would fall short on this indicator, even though they would look successful by income alone.

GNH in policy

Bhutan has used GNH to guide government decisions through policy screening: proposed policies can be checked against GNH criteria to see how they might affect areas like the environment, culture and community, not just the economy. Bhutan’s constitution also requires that a minimum of 60 percent of the country remain under forest cover, a commitment that fits the environmental pillar.

Lessons and limits

Bhutan’s experiment has inspired governments, researchers and the United Nations, which passed a resolution in 2011 encouraging countries to give more attention to happiness in development. At the same time, observers point out real challenges. Bhutan still faces poverty in rural areas, youth unemployment, and in recent years significant numbers of young people moving abroad for work and study. A national happiness goal does not automatically solve these problems.

The fairest reading is that GNH is a way of asking better questions about progress, not a guarantee of better answers.

Assuming Bhutan must be the happiest country

Because Bhutan is known for Gross National Happiness, people often assume it tops world happiness rankings. It does not; the GNH idea is about what a government aims for and measures, not a claim that its citizens are the happiest on Earth. Having a wellbeing goal and achieving high wellbeing are two different things.

Key takeaways

Gross National Happiness makes wellbeing, not just output, Bhutan's official measure of progress.
The GNH Index covers nine areas of life and uses thresholds of sufficiency.
Bhutan uses GNH to screen policies and protects at least 60 percent forest cover in its constitution.
The approach has been influential worldwide but has not removed Bhutan's economic challenges.